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Uselessmedics t1_iuf7fgs wrote

Jousting armour is insanely protective.

In normal combat you have to balance manouvrability and visibility with protection (can't fight if you can't see) but in a jousting contest your only opponent is coming from straight ahead, and you never have to get off your horse.

So jousting armour gave you impenetrable protection at the expense of being basically immobile, if you look up a frogmouth helmet you'll see that you can barely see anything out of them, in fact you have to lean your head forwards to see out at all.

That helmet was also usually rivited to your chest plate so you couldn't turn your head either, your arms had nearly now movement (since all you had to do was hold a lance straight).

All that meant there were no gaps or weak points in your armour which meant there was no risk in being hit somewhere unarmoured.

Some later jousting armour was barely even armour it was more like a small shed on top of a horse that you sat in rather than something you wore.

On top of all that, your opponent also wasn't trying to kill you, jousting lances are blunt, and usually designed to be weaker than the armour they're aiming at, so it was common to see lances splinter on impact (which also had the benefit of looking cool).

And you had a shield attached to your shoulder that sat in front of your chest as another layer of armour, and that's where your opponent was aiming, the shield was the easiest place to hit (being a large flat surface, as opposed to the rest of your armour being angled and curved to deflect blows) and the aim was to dehorse your opponent, so hitting the shield was the best way to do so.

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apple-masher t1_iufpzn6 wrote

They actually had complex scoring systems where you got points for splintering your lance, or hitting certain body parts. obviously you got the most points for knocking your opponent off their horse. Each match usually consisted of four bouts, so even if you got un-horsed, you could potentially come back and win.

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wilbur111 t1_iufa2pu wrote

  • How did it go, son?
  • I got dehorsed, mum.
  • Oh well. Better luck next time, dear.
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SirDooble t1_iuh0x1i wrote

So, I guess the trope of two rival jousters going at each other, one unhorses the other, and both get on foot to duel, is probably quite impractical.

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arnomora t1_iuj9fvh wrote

I think that's another type of event. I have zero medieval history knowledge but in books of fiction and such there is a thing where a lot of people fight with blunted weapons of all kinds, kind of like gladiators but non lethal

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SirDooble t1_iuji0cc wrote

Oh yeah, that's called the melee, and is a big fight on foot between people, sometimes in teams.

There is a trope in some films/shows though, where two people are jousting each other. One gets dehorsed by the other, and out of anger, pulls the other off of their horse. The two then begin to fight each other on foot, while still in their jousting armour. This trope was most recently in House of the Dragon.

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CreativeSun0 t1_iugvcro wrote

Do you have any examples of the shed style vs earlier?

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Clearskky t1_iuh8rfq wrote

With the armor being so restrictive, how did the Jousters express their skill?

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UncontrolableUrge t1_iuhuv9r wrote

You had enough movement to aim your lance. There is also the skill in controlling your horse.

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